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Imagine being able to view whole Web pages on a handheld screen. Or, perhaps, working on a spreadsheet on a PDA without continually scrolling the document up and down and side to side.

These are just a couple of the benefits promised by the advent of VGA or 640 x 480 pixel resolution displays for mobile devices. And with VGA as well landscape-viewing support added to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (see Review: Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition), the Pocket PC is ready to stake its claim as the king of high-resolution VGA platforms.

No less than four Pocket PCs are due this Fall with 640 x 480 resolution displays. These handhelds include the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ hx4705 (see HP Launches Wi-Fi Enabled Smartphone, PDAs), Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720, Asus MyPal A730 (see Asus MyPal A730 One Step Closer), and Toshiba e830 (see Toshiba Pocket PC Division Alive & Kicking).

The Toshiba e830 is the unannounced sequel to the e805 (see Review: Toshiba e805 Pocket PC Nearly Has it All), the first Pocket PC to feature a VGA screen. Unlike the e830, however, the e805 can only run a few applications at VGA, as it requires special software to work at that resolution because it ran an older edition of Windows Mobile. Toshiba has since made a Second Edition upgrade available to e805 users.

Now there are reports that Dell, which traditionally offers the most bang for the buck in its Pocket PCs, plans to join the four vendors mentioned above with its own take on the VGA-enabled Pocket PC.

Here's what we know:

According to reports, the new Pocket PC, Axim X50, will replace the Axim X5 as Dell's full-featured handheld offering.

The device's VGA screen should measure a robust 3.7-inches—with an Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator driving its audio and visual features. That's on top of a powerful 624 MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor.

As with other high-end Pocket PCs, the Axim X50 should integrate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking. It also doubles the 64MB of RAM in the Axim X5 to 128MB. And there should also be 64 of ROM and both a CompactFlash and Secure Digital slot for memory and peripheral expansion.

For power, the Axim X50 includes an 1800 mAh battery that is swappable. That's good news for users, as Wi-Fi and larger displays are notorious power hogs.

Look for the Axim X50 to ship in October at a still unknown price.